Grieving friends launch fundraisers for Tracy family

Leah Hyatt and other friends of Carrie Tracy Warren gathered on Saturday afternoon to distribute flyers announcing a benefit for Warren's two children and the rest of the Tracy family.

By JOEY MILLWOODTimes-News Staff Writer

Leah Laughter Hyatt looked down at the pavement, her face revealing deep sadness, as the last few raindrops fell from a spring shower.

Hyatt and other friends of Carrie Tracy Warren gathered on Saturday afternoon to distribute flyers announcing a benefit for Warren's two children and the rest of the Tracy family.

“She was strong,” Hyatt said, fighting back tears.

Warren, 30, and her parents, Theresa Russell Tracy, 49, and Richard Allen Tracy, 51, were killed Wednesday outside the Tracys' home at 297 Piney Ridge Drive in the Mountain Home community. Police say Warren's estranged husband, Ralph Robert Warren III, shot the trio, then fled the scene. After he was surrounded by law enforcement officers, Robert Warren took his own life Wednesday night.

Surviving the tragedy are the Warrens' 9-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son.

Carrie Warren's devotion to her friends and her strength of character motivated those who loved her to meet in the parking lot of Tarheel Lanes Saturday to pass out hundreds of flyers for distribution up and down Highway 25.

The benefit will take place at Fat Cat's at 2345 Hendersonville Road from 3 to 6 p.m. Saturday, May 18. The family-friendly event will feature a silent auction, a cornhole tournament and raffle drawings. On May 19, friends have planned a candlelight vigil at dusk at West Henderson High School.

A website has been set up to accept donations to help Warren's children and family going forward. At www.friendsagainstdomesticabuse.webs.com, donors may contribute via a Paypal account. Donations also are being accepted at all branches of TD Bank for the Tracy Family Fund.

Non-cash donations, such as toys and clothing, are being accepted at the Mills River and Fletcher fire departments and Egolf Motors in Hendersonville.

Though they are grieving, the dozen friends who gathered Saturday said they are focusing on the positive memories. They described Warren as a warm person who went to extreme measures to protect and love the people around her.

“She lost a lot of friends to protect us,” Leah Hyatt said.

Though there were clouds in her life, Warren was a ray of sunshine to those around her. No matter what troubles her friends brought to her, “she would try to turn it around,” Katie Fox said.

“She was positive,” Jessica Juergens added. “She never had a negative thing to say about anyone.”

Warren loved on the people around her, including her small children. A stay-at-home mom, Warren immersed herself in her children's lives, her friends said.

“She was a great mom,” Juergens added.

The sadness of losing a friend was evident on the faces of grieving friends on Saturday. That grief, however, has been met with a tremendous outpouring of support from friends and strangers in the community and through social networks such as Facebook, Fox said.

That has been a source of comfort for friends grieving the warm, selfless person that they loved so much, she added.